Silver Unicorn
by Fleur de Fur
Summary: Tanith Lee has written 3 books in a serial: Black Unicorn, Gold Unicorn and Red Unicorn. This is my instalment about Tanaquil's daughter. Many of the names and characters are the creations of Tanith Lee.
1. I

"Rise with the Sun!" came the voice of Jaive the Sorceress. "Salute the day!"  
  
Twenty years ago to this very day, the painting had similarly greeted a teenage girl, but unlike that one, this girl had dark hair and rose with the dawn instead of sleeping until midday. Her grandmother, Jaive, approved of this although maybe she didn't approve of the reason why. Larka was the eldest child of Tanaquil and Honj with a ten year head-start on her lively five year old red-headed sisters. Honj might have preferred a son but he only had daughters and with Larka being the eldest he took her under his wing as an honorary son.  
  
Every morning she would rise at dawn and practise combat moves with her father and a couple of his Locusts, who helped to guard the fortress in the desert, although this was a superfluous excuse. Jaive and her husband Worabex were both powerful Sorcerers, even though their magic was a bit scatty, to say the least.  
  
Her mother had told her that when Worabex had first come to live at the fortress all the magic had been under control, but only for a short time. Larka couldn't imagine living somewhere without magic having seeped into every part of her immediate world. This morning the lion head had thankfully produced water but her hairbrush had turned into a bird and flown away so she had had to comb it through with her fingers before tying it back. She was grateful that she didn't share the wild curly red her of her mother and grandmother.  
  
After her training with her father she enjoyed breakfast in the dining hall with the entire family and the Locusts. She loved the way the mid-morning sun made the red and green lights in the window dance across the room. It was nice eating together, even if her two little sisters, Tweetish and Sweetish, were fidgeting non-stop and her boisterous ten year old uncle, Landerax constantly teased them so that at least one of them was crying. It was annoying that the Mother-Father, Grandmother-Worabex partnerships were always gazing lovingly at each other, so on occasions like these she was often left to watch over the children. Being all of fifteen she obviously considered herself a fully grown adult.  
  
What would they do, if I left? She mused to herself. She was rudely interrupted by a small furry ball landing in her porridge. Wiping porridge off her face she glared down at a baby peeve that was licking the rest of the porridge out of the bowl and off its fur.  
  
"'Orry," it squeaked. Its voice quite high-pitched compared to the one that her mother called her familiar.  
  
"'Orry" was all this little peeve had quite managed to learn to say and Larka felt a pang of pity for it sometimes, as it never seemed to grow quite as fast as its brothers and sisters, who were now at least twice the size of it. It had also been caught in one of Jaive's stray spells and was now a dark emerald green. She picked Pology up, as she liked to call it, and gave it an extra rub down with her napkin.  
  
"There you go, all clean. Go and play with your brothers and sisters," she ordered it. Instead of bounding off like she hoped it would, it just "Prrped" sadly and gazed up at her with its bright blue saucer eyes. "Fine you can stay," she sighed and tucked into a pocket of her dark purple dress. Its head poked out the top.  
  
Honj and the Locusts had left to guard the castle while Worabex and Jaive were off performing sorcerous experiments and Tanaquil would wander round the castle fixing her mother's magic and sometimes dealing with the passing tradesmen. Larka, as usual, was left to deal with the children, generally getting them to help her with cleaning the dishes or cleaning one of the general areas that they all used. Around midday the three younger ones would be summoned to Jaive and Worabex's wizarding room to learn magic.  
  
The three had shown magical ability from very young ages whereas Larka had shown none. Tanaquil had once tartly told her mother over dinner it was because Larka had too much common sense.  
  
At these times Larka would go off exploring round the fortress or in the desert in the surrounding areas. When she was younger she had taken many walks around with her mother but as she grew older, and Tanaquil became more and more obsessed with fixing the magical leaks, Larka had had to take these walks without her. Tanaquil had told her that her mother had been too engrossed in her own spells to see to her own upbringing and so at first Landerax had joined Tanaquil and Larka until it was eventually just Landerax and Larka and then Tweetish and Sweetish.  
  
The fortress was entertaining because the rooms were constantly altering themselves from the magical leaks, or they were being "fixed" back to the way they were twenty years ago, when Tanaquil had been here as a girl, a formation of rooms Larka had never seen. There was also the strange overgrown jungle of weeds just outside the fortress, which had been put there by Worabex and Jaive before Larka's birth. In them lived many strange animals that had been the results of magical experiments gone awry. Larka's favourites were the many bright purple cats and kittens that lived out there, occasionally coming into the fortress grounds to chase the twitching tales of the stone lions on the staircase.  
  
About a half-mile trek across the desert was a collection of rocky hills and in these stood an arch. Tanaquil had taken Larka and Landerax over to it a few times and told them stories of unicorns and other worlds with such detail, she could almost believe they were true. Today Larka didn't fell like going all the way to the mountains as it was very hot. Instead she chose the cool shade that the weed jungle offered.  
  
She quickly scurried down the stone steps covered in lions in various stages of repose, some yawning, and across the courtyard to the gates. Struggling, she opened them just enough to squeeze herself and a pocketed Pology through and let them swing shut behind her.  
  
In the jungle she could hear insects chirping and cats purring and twigs snapping as she stepped on them. It was amazing that less than half a mile away there was endless scorching desert. Here however the air was thick but moist and as she got nearer to the centre it got darker, with the scant shafts of light not affording much vision. Annoyingly she stumbled and reaching out for something to steady herself, grabbed a thorny vine hard.  
  
Sucking her hand she issued forth a stream of curses she had picked up off the Locusts.  
  
"Muttok!" squeaked Pology.  
  
Larka was shocked. She wasn't quite sure whether it was because of the foul language it had used, or whether it was because it had used a new word. She was about to reprimand it when a strange twist in the shafts of light grabbed her attention.  
  
Something light and shiny, almost silver, was moving through the dark looming weeds.  
  
Was it? No, it couldn't be!  
  
Surely enough, there it was. A silver unicorn heading through the trees towards the fortress. 


	2. II

Larka was amazed by the beauty and felt drawn to the mysterious animal, she longed to follow it.  
  
Pology was issuing forth a stream of "prrps" that drew her back to herself. Looking down at it she scowled and was even more annoyed when she saw that the unicorn had vanished from sight. Angrily she grabbed the small peeve and shoved it roughly in her pocket and tried to follow the unicorn, only to find her skirts had caught on some thorns. Pulling at a fold in the skirts she ripped them, leaving strips of material on the plants. For some reason, the jungle seemed to have sprouted thorns everywhere she looked, causing her to shred both clothes and skin.  
  
"Why won't it let me follow it?" she cried exasperatedly, continuing to struggle until eventually she was free of thorns and into a more pleasant area of the jungle where she could pick up some speed. Setting off at a run, she soon found herself face-first in fallen leaves, as she tripped over a hidden root.  
  
"Muttok?" offered Pology, saving her form issuing forth more curses.  
  
"Muttok indeed," she murmured, as she climbed to her feet. Possibly, she reasoned, the unicorn didn't want her chasing after it. Well if that was the case, she added stubbornly, maybe she should just casually saunter after it. This course of action proved more successful than her previous one, as she encountered no more problems with walking through the jungle, save a purple kitten playfully leaping on her head.  
  
Emerging from the jungle she found the doors to the fortress wide open even though she had only opened them a crack. Upon entering she found everything eerily still, there wasn't a breeze to stir the leaves of the palm trees or even a twitch of a tail from any of the stone lions as she ascended the stairs, and once again she found a door wide open as she came to the door she had left by, convinced she had remembered to close it behind her on the way out.  
  
Having no idea where to go now, she anxiously chewed on a strand of her dark hair. Where would it go? To the kitchen for food? Surely a unicorn, being a magical being, didn't need food like she did. Maybe it was going to the sorcerium, where Jaive and Worabex would be giving lessons to the younger children? This made more sense and so she set off at a run and was halfway up a flight of stairs when she remembered that in the jungle the unicorn had made it difficult for her to follow it, so it couldn't be up there.  
  
Trying to think more logically about the situation, she decided that a central location would be an ideal place to start her search. Now she quickly made her way to the centre of the fortress, where there was a grand ballroom that was never used.  
  
It was an immense room painted in various shades of gold and hideous flowery gold wallpaper. Crystal chandeliers hung above her head covered in dustsheets and the polished wooden floor was bare save a thick layer of dust, in which she left footprints like in the snow. The ballroom had four gigantic sets of brown oak doors with lions for handles, one of which had swiped a paw at her when she had pressed its tail down to open the door that lead to the east wing, from which she had arrived.  
  
Going clockwise around the room she opened the southern door first and set off at a run down the corridor, dimly lit by blue globes of light. Finding no difficulty, she ran back to the ballroom. This time she tried the westerly door. Down here was a corridor dimly lit by red globes.  
  
Running down this one she felt as if she were running through water, something she had done when she was little and her mother and father had taken her on a holiday to a city by the sea and stayed in her aunt's palace. She never saw her aunt, as she lived across the sea with her emperor husband.  
  
At the end of the corridor she came to a split, where two staircases lead in opposite directions. As she had done before, she tried them to see which one was hardest to walk down. Using this method, she continued through the entire house until she came to a dark corridor with only one door at the end of it. A door that was wide open and pouring out a silvery light. This made sense as the unicorn hadn't shown much preference for closing doors behind itself.  
  
Casually sauntering down the corridor and pretending not to look at the door, even though the corridor was bare of decoration, she soon reached the room and nervously entered.  
  
The room had a sickly sweet smell about it, which was odd as it hadn't been turned into a garden like some of the other rooms had. In fact it was quite a bare room save for a piano covered in a dustsheet. The source of the sweet sickly smell was a demon with the head of a fawn and a pink, sparkly, wispy tail, who was letting off pitiful "mews" as Tanaquil advanced on it. Her, the silver unicorn, substantial yet transparent, was slowly advancing on Tanaquil, its horn pointing towards her.  
  
"Mother! Watch out!" cried Larka, causing Tanaquil to spin round and the demon to escape out of a window.  
  
As she turned round the unicorn quickened and stabbed its horn into Tanaquil's heart. The woman looked shocked and cried out, afraid that she was dying. Larka whimpered, guilty. If only she hadn't called out, her mother wouldn't have spun round and the unicorn wouldn't have stabbed her.  
  
The unicorn's horn being quite ethereal, left no mark, and as the unicorn drew its horn out of Tanaquil's chest it brought with it a young man in glistening silver armour, who was quite untransparent. He tumbled onto the floor, his untransparent armour making a terrible racket. Looking quite dazed, he stood up, well over 6 feet tall, and stiffly stretched limbs as if he had been sat down on a long journey. He was handsome with golden skin, white blonde short curly hair and bright blue eyes. The young man looked at them both, slightly confused, before bowing solemnly. When he turned and saw the unicorn, he whispered something inaudible and dropped to his knees, his hands clasped together under his chin as he stared at the unicorn in awe, tears in his eyes.  
  
"I prayed for you for so long," he said, his voice cracking.  
  
The unicorn silently cantered over, anod touching its horn to his head, vanished. 


End file.
